This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, August 25, 2009. I'm Caleb Brown.

Iraqis are stepping up, urging U.S. troops to leave Iraq ahead of schedule.

Does it mean that George W Bush was right all along that Iraq will become an ally and

force for good in the Middle East?

Christopher Preble, Director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute,

comments.

The U.S. appears to be in a situation in Iraq where Iraqis would prefer that the U.S. be completely out of that country before the U.S.

might prefer to be out of that country.

The U.S. says that Iraq will not be able to defend its skies by 2011 and they've requested that

more troops be sent into Northern Iraq.

Why the disconnect?

Well, the main disconnect is between the desire of the Iraqi people

to have control of security in their country.

They don't have full control at this point, but it appears

that most Iraqis, many Iraqis at least would be willing to tolerate a level of

security or insecurity that most other Westerners would

find inadequate, but again from the Iraqi perspective it's better that they be doing it rather

than the Americans be doing it.

You know sovereignty has been defined for hundreds of years as the ability to

control violence in your own country or have a monopoly on violence in your own country.

The all of the arguments that the country.

All of the arguments that the U.S. military officials are making with respect to Iraqi air support,

...